PCL BLACK CONTRACTORS CONTINUE HISTORIC CONTRIBUTION TO SOUTHEASTERN LIVE WELL CENTER

By Yvette Porter-Moore Contributing Writer

is is the h of a series of articles highlighting the various subcontractors working on the County of San Diego Southeastern Live Well Center project scheduled for completion by the Summer of 2023.

e County of San Diego plays a critical role in the well-being of its residents by expanding access to health and services in areas accessible to the community.

e new Southeastern Live Well Center (SELWC) in San Diego is located on the corner of Market Street and Euclid Avenue. is center will serve as a one-stop location for many important services.

The construction of this state-of-the-art community center has brought employment and career opportunities into the area. Those began with the various subcontracting opportunities that were made available for certified firms, including Small Business Enterprises (SBE), Veteran’s Business Enterprise (VBE), Disabled Veteran Business Enterprises (DVBE), and local businesses during its construction.

THE BLACK CONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION OF SAN DIEGO, INC.

I had the opportunity to visit the National Black Contractors Association (NBCA), San Diego chap- ter located on Imperial Avenue, where I was greeted by Abdur-Rahim Hameed, founder, and president.

Four decades ago, Hameed started the BCA San Diego chapter as a local organization during the Reaganomics era. Blacks were excluded from doing public contracting as well as working in their own communities. Businesses and organizations that had historically been willing to discuss business opportunities with black contractors, including the area’s churches, were directed by the banks funding their project to select contractors from a list of approved businesses that excluded black-owned businesses.

Along with Charles Black, co-founder of BCA, Hameed began organizing contractor meetups to discuss how to overcome these challenges and source new business opportunities. From these humble beginnings grew the National Black Contractors Association of America, which was founded in 2008, Hand has since grown to include 17 chapters in 5 states.

It is the mission of the National Black Contractors Association to support BCAs throughout America, in helping African American contractors gain their fair share of construction contract opportunities with city, state, and federal contracts and private-public development, where the general public supports their business. It is the rst African American association with a state- and federal-approved apprenticeship program and o ers Youth Build pre-apprenticeship training programs for inner-city community youth, for which the late Council member George Stevens was a passionate advocate and fervent supporter of BCA.

BCA has been subcontracted by PCL Construction to manage the local-hire initiatives for the construction of the new Southeast LiveWell Center. e organization operates a local resource center to assist community members who are quali ed in their respective elds and are interested in working on the project.

“We are considered the door opener,” explains Hameed. “We open doors for people to get into opportunities creating and linking leveraged relationships. Contractors come to the table because they have national missions of supply and diversity. One of the challenges of major companies is trying to nd people to assist them, in nding folks that have boots on the ground.”

When asked how the SELWC project has progressed on its local-hire commitments, Hameed stated, “ e numbers are high.” He believes that the SELWC project will be regarded as a model for how construction spending can be leveraged to provide equitable